You are kitkat pancakes, warm from the weathered stove top, filling the house with warmth and laughter that also fills my heart when the world gets frigid. You are diet coke, bubbly and giving my life and thoughts the caffeine it needs, focusing your energy on me, when I am faced with another struggle.
You are a hand knitted patchwork blanket, cultured and created with many unique pieces. One that I use as a cover when I am frightened and the world seems like too much, a shield that protects me from the future and all it may bring. A comforting hug.
You are a pair of headphones, listening intently to the music that I create and perform from my heart, and while you may not know, you and dad are the subject of nearly every piece. You are a microphone, expressing your happiness and pride for me in loud pitches that can be heard around the world, adding gentle critiques only when I ask you to. You are a DJ, requesting me to sing your favorite songs, creating playlists that I may or may not sing along to, but I try for you.
You are a library, an open book with endless information, your pages filled with stories and experiences that you have faced alone, and wish that I never will. Shaky breaths and hands connect feelings and distinguish the hurt that you have experienced, you hope to lead me with the map of hurt that adorns your pages away from a boy that is an exact replica of one in your previous chapters.
You are a painting, a davinci, exquisite in color and contrast, priceless in beauty and complexity. Sometimes portrayed as angry, sometimes sad, this all depends on the day.
I am so proud of you, after so many hardships and excruciating pain, you have chosen to add brushstrokes to the painting that is you, to challenge davinci. To add vibrant purples, light blues and reds, to change your shape, your impact. You are ready to open your eyes, your heart, and your mind to change, and better your future. You are an inspiration to me.
You are a woman who is tremendous in strength, you have picked up your pieces again and again after every storm that has smashed through your windows, put a new pane of glass on the open holes, and stood strong when the clouds gathered once again. You remain beautiful and relentless again and again.
You are the woman that has raised me, taught me that true beauty is on the inside, that words may hurt. That my windows are going to break but I must fuse them back together or get a new pane. I must not give up, life is too important, to always grow. For that, I cannot thank you enough.

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when times are grey…

You are you, my mama.